CMHC delivers results for Canadians in first quarter of 2018

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) released its first quarter financial report demonstrating its contributions to the stability of housing markets and the financial system while also providing support for Canadians in housing need.

“We continue to navigate a changing regulatory environment that has impacted our mortgage loan insurance volumes,” said Lisa Williams, Chief Financial Officer. Nonetheless, we generated a net income of $293 million from our commercial activities, including securitization. This quarter, we also invested $1 billion to create much-needed housing units for low- and middle-income Canadians across the country.”

CMHC also published supplemental data on its Assisted Housing, Securitization and Covered Bonds activities. New this quarter is an expanded Mortgage Loan Insurance business supplement.

Contributing to the stability of the financial system and facilitating access to housing

For the three months ended March 31, 2018, we:

• Provided mortgage loan insurance for more than 43,000 new units across the country, including over 24,700 rental units.

• Maintained the quality of our portfolio with an overall arrears rate of 0.29%. The typical CMHC-insured borrower had, on average:

o Credit score – 752

o Purchase price – $ 281,123

o Equity – 7.8%

• Provided guarantees for $36.7 billion in securities to support residential mortgage financing. This includes $27.2 billion for National Housing Act Mortgage-Backed Securities and $9.5 billion for Canada Mortgage Bonds.

Helping Canadians in housing need gain access to suitable housing they can afford

For the three months ended March 31, 2018:

• We invested $1 billion through our Assisted Housing activities on behalf of the Government of Canada to create much-needed housing units for low- and middle-income Canadians across the country.

• Budget 2018 proposed to increase the amount of low-cost loans provided by the Rental Construction Financing Initiative by $1.25 billion over the next three years. This brings the total to $3.75 billion in available loans for this initiative, which is open until December 31, 2020.

Delivering results for Canadians

CMHC’s mortgage loan insurance and securitization guarantee programs operate on a commercial basis. As a result of these activities in the first quarter, we generated net income of $293 million.

As a responsible risk manager, CMHC holds capital for its commercial activities in line with its risk profile and with regulatory capital requirements. Our overall insurance-in-force as at March 31, 2018 is $472 billion and for this we had $14.3 billion in capital available, representing 177% of the minimum regulatory capital target.

As Canada’s authority on housing, CMHC contributes to the stability of the housing market and financial system, provides support for Canadians in housing need, and offers unbiased housing research and advice to all levels of Canadian government, consumers and the housing industry. For more information, follow us on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Christina Haddad is the Vice-President of Public Affairs at Canada Mor tgage and Housing Corporation.

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